Egypt unrest threatens status as rising outsourcing star
Egypt was dubbed an up-and-coming outsourcing destination by industry watchers in late 2010. But this week’s dramatic political unrest puts that reputation at risk — and serves as a warning to IT to plan for the geopolitical risks that can flare in offshore outsourcing locales.
What happens if the country you outsource to suddenly goes dark?
Early adopters of Egyptian IT and business process services are finding out. Egypt’s government reportedly blocked all Internet and cell phone service overnight as anti-government protests continued in the North African nation.
This political unrest and network shutdown come just three months after Egypt’s information technology minister announced that the country wanted to boost its annual outsourcing industry revenues from slightly more than $1 billion to $10 billion by 2020, by investing $15 million to bolster local IT businesses and intellectual property protection.
Egypt’s concerted effort to brand itself as an offshore IT services alternative appeared to be working: Many outsourcing analysts have [recently been calling] the country of 80 million a credible outsourcing option, particularly for European companies in a similar time zone.
See Egypt unrest threatens status as rising outsourcing star, by Stephanie Overby, for CIO.
Tags: Business Continuity, Egypt, geopolitical risk, offshore, outsourcing
